Hoffarth on the media: Dodgers’ TV partners transition out

This should be the prime weekend for Prime Ticket to crank up its Dodgers coverage and chronicle the team as it navigates through the final homestand of the regular season and induces playoff momentum.

Just circle back to how the local cable network partner Fox Sports West got behind the Kings’ 2012 Stanley Cup run with all of its ancillary coverage, despite the fact it couldn’t televise any live games because of national TV rights agreements.

But then again, this also is a time where we’re still getting our antennas around a two-year run major overhaul in local L.A. sports television. The disruption of familiarity requires viewers to keep up with the new landscape of the channel relocation program.

Coming up on a year since the Lakers broke loose from its longtime residence at Fox Sports West and KCAL-Channel 9 to team up on a mega-rights deal with Time Warner Cable and become a partner in the launch of the El Segundo-based TWC SportsNet, the Dodgers are doing the same and more on their own path toward self-produced fulfillment.

The momentum finally can start building toward the creation of their own SportsNet L.A. that will arrive in the next six months, with TWC’s financial support and assistance as well.

Fox Sports West’s 17 years as a Dodgers cable partner — the team actually precipitated the launch of Fox Sports West 2 in 1997, later rebranded with the retro name Prime Ticket a few years ago — comes to a melancholy end Sunday.

The Dodgers’ eight-year run spanning hundreds of games with KCAL-Channel 9 also over — not quite as abrupt as ending a Lakers’ 35-year relationship but maybe just as noteworthy when more games are moving off over-the-air TV and onto cable.

A nice retrospective was offered up by Gary Miller and Eric Karros on the “Think Blue” pregame show Wednesday. Miller and Karros teamed up with producer Lou Cook since the very first show.

The Dodgers-Giants game coverage from San Francisco was wrapped up with a very classy 30-second “thank you” video together at the request of station general manager Steve Mauldin and carried out by director of creative services Otto Peterson.

This comes after KCAL recorded its best local ratings (7.0, with a 12 share) of a Dodgers game in 15 years when they went to the bottom of the ninth to defeat the visiting New York Yankees in mid-July. Then again, KCAL also saw some key games in August unavailable to its viewers during the CBS-Time Warner dispute.

Advertisement

“I think what Los Angeles will miss most is having an over-the-air broadcast outlet for at least a handful of the games, which I think every team should have, even if it were a simulcast,” Miller, who came to KCAL in 2006 after a 15-year run at ESPN and hosting “Baseball Tonight,” said on Thursday.

Sunday afternoon, Prime Ticket officials plan to mark the Dodgers departure by airing a montage of memorable moments as well after it covers the planned on-field playoff rally airing as part of the post-game show.

But as for doing any special Dodgers pre- and post-game wrap around shows during TBS’ exclusive NLDS coverage that will begin Oct. 3, that’s all off the table.

Prime Ticket would only offer up in a statement: “We’ll be getting ready for our TV coverage of the Kings, Ducks and Clippers, but we wish the Dodgers the best of luck in the playoffs.”

Thanks for the memories, but the business relationship has ended.

Vin Scully moves to radio for the first three and last three innings (and beyond) on the team’s KLAC-AM (570) flagship station during the postseason. Charley Steiner and Rick Monday will call the middle innings.

That doesn’t mean TBS would not have some interest in asking about Scully about his availability in the NLDS or NL Championship Series to join its exclusive national telecast in some way, even as Scully already has said publicly he was not interested in any abbreviated role during his three-inning radio interlude.

There are no new announcements about the logistics of the Dodgers’ reported $8.5 billion deal to start SportsNet L.A. 24/7 channel. Team president, CEO and shareholder Stan Kasten is waiting for the right moment to move forward on addressing it.

“It’s very exciting to think about,” Kasten said this week. “Finally, the Dodgers fan base that we talk about is going to have something they’ve never had before, somewhere to turn for virtually 24 hours of Dodger content.

“We think — we know — there is a demand for it and we’re finally going to provide it.”

And all those years working in Atlanta with cable mogul Ted Turner and his regional sports network media empire has only solidified in Kasten’s mind this will work.

“Listen, this is THE DODGERS, OK?” he said. “In terms of content or attractiveness for a product, this is off the charts. I think it’ll be as popular if not more than any RSN anywhere.”

Distribution issues likely will intensify in the weeks before the 2014 regular season as cable and dish companies resist having to pay more for another sports channel.

Kasten said he anticipates “relatively smooth sailing. I’m aware of what happened (with TWC SportsNet launching last fall). Launches always have their hurdles. It’s just part of the business. Soon enough, I anticipate we’ll be sailing at top speed.”

RECORD, PAUSE, DELETE

Gauging the media’s high- and low-level marks of the week, and what’s ahead:

DROP THE PUCK

= The Kings will pop up on KCOP-Channel 13 today at 7:30 p.m. with Bob Miller and Jim Fox calling the exhibition game in Las Vegas against the New York Rangers (sorry, no TV coverage of Saturday’s game at the MGM Grand against Colorado). That leads into the regular-season opener hijacked by NBC Sports Net (Thursday, Oct. 3, 5 p.m. in Minnesota), with Dave Strader and Brian Engblom in the booth. The Kings-Wild game will be the third NBCSN game in three nights, after the Chicago Blackhawks’ banner-raising game against Washington (Tuesday, 5 p.m.) and then Buffalo-Detroit (Tuesday, 5 p.m.). The Ducks’ season opener Wednesday against Colorado (6:30 p.m.) is on its usual Prime Ticket home. Sizing up the Kings’ chances, NBC analyst Pierre McGuire noted their depth and “enlightened” coaching staff. “L.A. is in a very good position going forward,” he said. NBC analyst Eddie Olczyk said a key to this team is how they overcome the loss of defenseman Rob Scuderi, “a security blanket who did an unbelievable job with the Kings. He made a very unassuming impact. It may not seem very important to average fans, but the hockey fans know. We’ll see if Willie Mitchell, if healthy, can fill that void.”

IN THE CUP

= Before it goes to video, make an effort to find “The Short Game,” a documentary into its second week playing at the AMC Loews Broadway 4 on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It focuses on eight 7-year-olds competing in the World Championships of Junior Golf at Pinehurst, N.C. As Golf Digest’s John Strege writes: “The toxic mix of youth sports and overzealous parents threaten to hijack” this film, but “it was rescued, mercifully and ultimately entertainingly, by the kids themselves.” Josh Greenbaum is the director, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are among the executive producers and Allan Kournikova, the half brother of tennis star Anna Kournikova, is one of the featured players.

OUT OF LUCK

= NBC Sports Network reports a tremendous jump in the percentage increase of its viewership over the last five weeks, bolstered by Premier League soccer, more NFL studio programming and even the recent America’s Cup. What wasn’t pushing the needle: Michelle Beadle and her midday studio show, “The Crossover,” launched in coordination of NBC’s coverage of the Super Bowl nine months ago. The cancellation this week of “The Crossover” is interesting in that it came just a short time after Beadle, who took a bundle to cross over to NBC from ESPN after her success on “Sports Nation,” talked to the Sports Media Journal about all the challenges she faced in trying to self-promote a show she was flying solo since May after they bounced co-host Dave Briggs. “I’ve got more followers on Twitter (north of 800,000) than the network gets viewers,” said Beadle. In continuing her job on NBC’s “Access Hollywood,” she tweeted out Wednesday: “Crossover is donzo. Thanks 2 the crew who tried their damnedest. I’ll let ya know what’s next.”